Day 5

We woke up to the landscapers cutting off branches on the tree in front of our door.

We thought we would be starting school today, but things didn't work out that way. We had off because of a funeral at DALICE. A student died last week. It would have been interesting to see how Zambian funerals are, but we found out it would probably be wierd if we went (seeing as we had never met the student). So we ended up staying at the Lodge until closer to 16. We lounged around the pool, reading, bathing in the sun and knitting. I got a big craving for fruit around 11, so I asked if they had a fruitbowl or something at Chanters. They didn't, so we ended up getting pancakes with lemon/pineapple and icecream. It was good, but what I would have done for a bowl of melon/mango/citrus fruits!

This s my companions' dish, but mine is exactly the same only with vanilla icecream.

The ice cream melted too quick. Got some on my chinny, chin, chin.

Tons of these little guys run around at the lodge.

Yesterday before we went to bed, my companion and I decided we wanted to go to an Italian restaurant we had heard about called Olga's. It's an italian restaurant run by Italians who have taken in Zambian kids off the street. They've taught the kids how to run the restaurant and given them an opportunity other than they might have gotten. I should have gotten a picture of it, but there was a mural on the wall which had text under which read something like this: "Don't give me a fish to eat, teach me how to fish." I ordered ravioli with tomato sauce and was not dissapointed. I know it may sound stupid, but I was so glad to be able to eat something I'm used to eating at home.

I ordered the ravioli (left) and my companion the lasagne (right).

After dinner we went to Shoprite to buy some fruit and drinks. It's not normal in Norway to make stickers with the price of fruits or vegetables, which you stick on the plastic bags. I've encountered it it Bulgaria and a few other countries. I found out it's like that here too. So we went to get a sticker and, unlike Bulgaria, there is a guy standing by the sticker machine who makes the sticker for you. The guy we talked to seemed like he was very "pratesyk" (which is Norwegian for gabby). He started talking to us by asking the regular: How are you. I thought it would end at that, but then he asked how our New Year was. I didn't understand to begin with since New Years was 23 days ago, but he kept saying it asking if we didn't understand English etc. Then he started trying to teach us a little bit of two of the local languages (which sounded a bit like Italian). Since he was at work, he asked if he could have the address to where we're staying, our names and our phone number. I'm not used to giving that info to strangers, so I was a bit skeptical, but then I thought about how that seems to be the way they do things here in Africa. So he's going to meet us on Wednesday and teach us some more of the two languages he was talking about. *crossing fingers all goes well*

If you've read all of my posts from Africa so far, you know about the cabby who drove us to Victoria Falls. Well, we've used him all day and found out we'll be using him for the rest of our stay. He seems very nice and when we told him about what happened to us at the market (when we were buying fabric), he said he would come next time. I think both my companion and I felt releaved to hear that a local was going to come with us. Maybe we'll be spared angry men coming up to us, shouting.

At dinner I realized that I've gotten a wierd rash on the palms of my hands. I'm really hoping it's just because of the heat (I seem to react badly to the sun --> allergic rashes), but we're going to keep an eye on it for the next few days. If it doesn't go away by Thursday, I may have to go to the doctors office. *Insert frowny*

Rainy weather today as well...

Worked some more on the mittens.